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Thursday, February 26, 2009
Sunday night it came on really fast. Megan was really struggling to breath and I ran for the phone to call 911. The look of fear on her face will be forever etched in my mind. We put her in the tub hoping the steam would clear her but it made it worse. I chucked the spacer she usually uses and stuck the albuterol inhaler directly in her mouth which gave her enough relief to get her dressed and stick her in the car. We took her to the ER (not a childrens hospital just the closest one) and they gave her a shot of epi and decadron to open her airways which helped right away. Once she was comfortable and she fell asleep her sats were in the low 80's. We tried repositioning her and putting on oxygen but she refused. The ER doc told us she thought we would have to take another ambulance ride to CHOP (we still haven't been able to pay the last $1200 ride) that her sats were making her uncomfortable. Joe and I both shook our heads 'no' and asked if we could wait it out a little bit and let her get comfortable. If you looked at Megan while she was sleeping she did not look in destress or anything. Finally her #'s came back up after an hour to 88 to 92'. Once she stayed in the 90's for 2 hours they let us take her home, THANK GOD!

I asked for a prescription of an epi as a breathing treatment at the ER. The doctor refused saying they never give that to outpatients. I just wanted to have something on hand for next time. I do not want to have to wait 20 minutes (waiting for parents and driving) to give Megan relief. I seriously was scared out of my mind, her throat just swelled and she popped all the blood vessels in her face just to try and catch a breath.

We will be following up with her Pulminologist in a few weeks. I am just wondering how this came on so fast without warning. Maybe the Pulminologist will give a prescription to keep on hand for next time. Megan will also be having a sedated echo on March 9th down at CHOP. This was scheduled after her stay in the hospital in December. They want to make sure no heart issues are the cause of her low oxygen levels. Looks like we will be busy with doctor appointments for a while.

9 comments:

Bethany said...

Poor Megan! Do you think she ate something that caused it? Or had she only had foods that she's had before? Have you ever had an allergy workup on her? Just curious to see what it would say. I hope she is feeling better! We were in the ER this week too and it sucks!

Cheryl said...

Oh,how scary!I'm glad she's o.k.
Bethany has a good point about it maybe being a food allergy.My 11 yr old son starts having breathing problems if he has milk or products with dark red coloring.

Anonymous said...

How scary Steph!! I hope everything gets back to normal soon.

SunflowerStories said...

How frightening! Do you have a nebulizer? Would that help get more med in when she gets bad?

My name is Sarah said...

This is Joyce. Oh my golly, what a frightening situation. I know just how scary that is. I always say it takes 10 years off my life. We have tried for the EPI too and it seems they are just not willing to give it for breathing issues.

I am curious about your last ambulance ride and why insurance would not cover that. If it was a medically necessary transfer, why did you get stuck with the cost? Just curious as I have been following ambulance issues at great length. One of my pet peeves. Just one more thing for you to have to worry about.

Hope she continues to improve and maybe the pulmonologist can figure something out.

Amy Flege said...

holy smokes, that is scary!! i have asthma and its not fun but nothing like that!! i sure hope it doesnt happen again!

Stephanie said...

Joyce. We got a bill from the ambulance company but my husband is not sure now if they even submitted it to Medical Assistance yet (Megan's secondary). We were told the denial reason for our primary was it was not medical necessity, although I am pretty sure the ER doc would disagree since we asked if we could driver her ourselves. I am going to talk to my husband today and see if he got anywhere on the bill. I will keep you posted.

datri said...

Oh, how frightening! Poor Megan.

JennyH said...

That sounds SO scary. glad she is fine though. Hoping you can get a script for epi in case it happens again.